Hitachi, Ltd.

Yuzuru Maya

Kenta Ninose

Tsuyoshi Minakawa

Soichi Isono

Akira Otsuji

Akira Ohtsuji

Hirofumi Nagasuka

Taketoshi Sakuraba

Kouji Amano

Takaaki Haruna

Masaya Ichikawa

Takeshi Shigeno

Tomoyuki Mochizuki

Miki Yonehara

Hideaki Sampei

A management apparatus and method capable of enhancing reliability of a computer system built by setting parameters are proposed. A management apparatus for managing a construction target system capable of constructing a computer system with desired system specifications by setting respective values of specified parameters: creates a logical model that is a logical model of the computer system with the required system specifications; classifies each of parameters for each of templates, to which respective values are set to construct the computer system with the required system specifications, with respect to each item of the system specifications; compares the values of the parameters for the required system specifications with values of corresponding parameters which are set to the templates; verifies whether or not the computer system to be built according to each parameter whose value is set to each template satisfies the required system specifications; and displays the verification result.

Management apparatus and management method

An object of this invention is to speed up file access and shorten the switching time upon failure. There is provided a computer system with plural storage systems and plural servers, in which: the storage systems each have a disk drive for storing files read/written by the servers and a storage control device, which has an interface connected to the servers via a network and a controller for controlling file read/write in the disk drive; the storage control device and the servers each have a cache memory, which temporarily stores files read/written by the servers, and a file cache control information unit, which keeps information of files stored in the cache memory; and the file cache control information unit holds information indicating whether or not a file is stored in the cache memory of the storage control device and/or the cache memories of the servers.

File cache-controllable computer system

Consistency of a shared disk is secured in system switching in a hot standby system. In the standby system in which an active computer and standby computer share the shared disk, when a write I/O request is issued from the active computer, information about a start of the I/O is recorded in, for example, a memory. When the I/O is completed, the information is deleted from the memory. When a failure occurs in the active computer, the active computer transmits the record of the information about the start of the I/O, to the standby computer. The standby computer verifies the record to recover a disk in which the I/O is to be executed.

Hot standby system

A data transfer method for a computer system in which a computer is logically divided into a plurality of logical processing units and a logical coupling unit. A correspondence between a start of physical addresses of a memory of each logical processing units in a memory of the computer is stored in advance. If a first logical processing unit issues a write command to the logical coupling unit by designating a logical address of data, the logical coupling unit stores an identifier and the logical address of the first logical processing unit. If a second logical processing unit issues a read command of the data, a physical address of data storage corresponding to the logical address of the first logical processing unit is calculated in accordance with the identifier and the logical address of the first logical processing unit and the address correspondence. The data is read by using the calculated physical address.

Data transfer method for logical computers

An enqueue structure type is provided within a coupling facility to record the use state and to manage a request queue of resources shared among programs on computers of a system. All programs to use a shared resource issue a request to reserve the shared resource to the coupling facility before using it. The coupling facility affords the permission to use the resource to the programs if it is usable, and adds the programs to the resource request queue if unusable. When a program using the shared resource frees it, the coupling facility fetches a program from the beginning of the request queue, reserves the shared resource for the next program and notifies the next program that the use of the shared resource has been approved. On receiving the notification, the program uses the shared resource without asking the coupling facility for the approval of the use of the shared resource again. Further, exclusive control of shared resources by use of a spin lock having shared and exclusive attributes is implemented by using two locks for one shared resource, wherein the first lock is reserved and then freed after the second lock is reserved.

Method for managing shared resources

A parallel computer system and a block transfer method and computer program for use with the parallel computer system which includes at least one processing unit divided into a plurality of logical processing units and a connecting device which exchanges commands and acknowledgements with the processing unit. The connecting device edits into a single command or acknowledgement individual commands or acknowledgements to be sent to the logical processing units and sends the single command or acknowledgement to the processing unit. The single command or acknowledgement includes a header, a command or acknowledgement code, logical processing unit numbers and pieces of command or acknowledge information corresponding to the logical processing units. The processing unit divides the single command or acknowledge into the individual commands or acknowledgements for the logical processing units and notifies the latter of these commands or acknowledgements. The invention operates in a similar manner when sending commands or acknowledgements from the logical processing units to the connecting device.

Block transfer method for use with parallel computer system

A command is issued from a processing unit to an on-line storage unit and transferred from the on-line storage unit to a back-up storage unit. The received commands are processed in the respective storage units. An overhead of the on-line storage unit is reduced in a hot stand-by system. Storage contents of the on-line storage unit and the back-up storage unit are made coincident in a structure having a plurality of processing units, where the on-line storage unit and the back-up storage unit are connected through a channel device.

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Sagamihara, Japan

Yuzuru Maya